Ozaki iMini Pet iPod Dock

Ozaki is a brand that offers all kinds of iPod accessories, including these cute little Docking stations called the iMini Pet. Why Pet? Because it has a little stuffed animal perched on top of it, and wait, the animal dances to the music! There is an tendency initially to find it a little too childish, but once it’s on you just cannot take your eyes off the darned thing, it’s really that cute.

What is it ?
It’s essentially a docking station with radio and alarm, all wrapped in soft fur, with just the docking station part exposed on the top, plus an alphanumeric LED screen and joystick pad button visible in the front. The stuffed animal on top of our model is called Charles, and he happens to be a cuddly frog. There are other pets available, like a puppy dog, a panda bear, a lion cub and few more. These have an ‘ON’ switch on their small pudgy paws. Once switched on, the little thing starts dancing to the tunes your iPod plays. It seems to match perfectly to your music, but in essence it’s a pre programmed thing at the BPM of about 125 BPM, thus it matches with many songs and it looks fun. The mouth also opens and closes and its hands seem to be doing this robotic dance along with the music, something to surely spur smiles from everyone around.

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Now on to the tech part of it. iMini has built in a rhythm decoding chip MJ1191, in the embedded system. The skeletal frame is called HIPS skeleton. The device has a rated frequency response of 200 Hz – 16 KHz, thus bass seems a bit compromised. It has various sized moulds for different iPod devices, and also has a line in for other MP3 players. There is a mic in too. The SNR ratio is 60 dB. It also comes with a built in alarm clock and FM radio.

The sound output is quite loud and almost clean, actually just a tad of audible distortion at the max volume. As expected the mid frequencies are the dominating factor here, and bass is on the lesser side. The sound is good for a system that will be in a bedroom, on a bedside table. The alarm function works out just fine, no glitches there.

At a price of Rs. 6750, it’s a little expensive, at least comparad to other docks. The thing is, this product is a perfect gift for children, or for the better half, and chances are they are not going to bother too much about audio fidelity and accuracy. It’s loud enough, and more importantly the pet dances on top of it just too cutely. I cannot imagine a better gift this Valentine’s day. We sourced it from Access in Lamington Road, Mumbai. You can check their website for more details.